Luck By Chance

Time - 0056 hours, May 2nd 2009 saturday
Mission -- 2 people want to go to buy cigarettes
Money in hand - Rs. 20

A - Abbey sutta lene chalte hain
B - Paise hain
A - Bees rupaiye hi hain.
B - CB ke room se lete hain
(B comes out with a 10 rupees note from CB's room)

A - yaar 20 rupaiye mein paidal jaana padega, aur chappal bhi tooti hui hai
B - aaj autowaalon se lift maang lenge
Both laugh

A & B walk to the hostel main gate
They meet C there

A to C - 10 rupaiye hain
(C gives him 10 rupees)

A and B spot a Santro. They signal for a lift

D(getting out of the car) - Main idhar utar raha hoon
A - Thik hai yeh toh H 10 tak jaayegi naa.(to E) H 10 tak chod dogi naa
E - ok

E drops them till H 10, A and B thank her and move ahead.

B says hi to a group of people

A - inse bhi paise maang naa
B - Bachche hain. Inko toh chodd do (both laugh)

After walking some 10 steps. They spot an Auto, signal for lift again

A - Bhaiyaa main gate tak chodd do, waise bhi aap jaa rahe ho
Autowaala smiles, looks for 5 seconds, then realises they are serious
He agrees

They get down at Main Gate. Spot another car. They rush to the car

A - Kahan jaa rahe ho
F - Marine drive
A - Pizza hut tak chod doge
F - Sure

At Pizza hut they get down from the santro and thank F.

They buy calculate and 6 suttas according to their needs, B suggests to buy some more. They get another 2

B - Chalo lakeside se chalte hain
A - Haan
B - Pata hai abb hadd toh yeh ho jaayegi ki bas lakeside gate pe koi gaadi leke khada ho

At lakeside Gate they meet F and H

G - kahan se aa rahe ho
A - Sutta leke
G - Extra hain
B - Yaar yahan se hostel jaane ke paise nahin hai
G - Aap log humein sutta de dijiye, hostel main chodd dunga
A gives 2 suttas (the buying of 2 sutta helped out eventually)

Now A, B, G and H all sit on the Pulsar and from lake side gate to H3, they come 4 people on a single bike holding on to each other somehow.

Time of reaching the room 0126 hours


Report completed
A - Me, B - Raj, C - Doctor, D - Horsey, E - Neha, F - Baba, G - Rama, H -Babban

Mission status - Completed

My Life-My experiences with PPTs

C - Arrey chal chal Placement site khol dekhte hain aaj fine laga kya.
D - ??
C - Tujhe nahin pata kya?

Rewind 2 hours
B - Our company is very unique ................what we do nobody else does....................there in no technical advertisement company..........we have got about only 5 people who are working in out company for more than 4 years, i don't know why they leave the job................the nearest competitor is worth less than half our size.......................I don't know why they leave jobs,I mean I have stayed on so I don't know why they leave.........any questions?
A - So the kind of job you do, none of your competitors does, none of your competitors do that kind of job.
B - Yes we are a very unique company.
A - So you do a very different, unique job
B - Yes
A - So if we join your company, we do what we don't get to do anywhere else, we do a very unique job.
B - Yes,(pauses) yo do a very unique job and ..
A - (Cuts him) So we can't switch

The guy claimed to be a $700 million company, he was the owner of it. I have no doubt that it well maybe 700 millions worth, but he wasn't answering any questions head-on. "We have no nearest competitors". "We have many clients 'some name' etc". If your company is so unique, what happens to the people who switch, their experiences in this field aren't worth much anywhere else (as of now, later the kind of work you do, it really is interesting,there is a huge market just waiting there).

Now they have banned pizzas(refreshments) , leaving me with no questions to ask in PPTs.
For the information, the company did distribute refreshments.

My Life - Penalty

Penalty

Background of the snippet. A doesn't own a working computer, apparently his long sessions on computer worn it out.
(A sits in front of a computer trying to figure out the password, the hint is "Worth rupees 1000/")
A types
- truth
-what is truth
-true
and gives up
Later B comes to the room

A - Abbey tera password kya hai
B - Maine aapko bola tha naa, ki main hints diya karunga
A - Haan, magar samajh mein nahin aaya. "worth rupees 1000" "hazaar rupaiye ka prashan". Sachaai
B - Pizza
A - ??. Ohho
B - Kya yaar aapko toh pata hona chaiye
(A = Me, B = My wingie)

I have been hearing many versions of the story. For my other friends, this is what happened
"
Mr. NIKHIL KUMAR PANDEY 04D05011 has been fined Rs.1000 for rude behavior with company officials and will be unregistered from placements unless the fine is paid along with an apology letter before the next PPT.

IPT
"

Now from what I've heard, I mean in the speculations, my behavior was appalling. But that wasn't the case. The incident goes thus

The Life Strand / Strand Life PPT was to be held at 6:15, I had a class till 6:30 (I heard that there might be a quiz on 23rd so thought of attending the class). I reached the FC Kholi auditorium at around 6:45 and when I entered the room there was no seat empty. I saw on the screen and saw slide number 48 (hell, I missed a lot). I looked around a bit and went and sat on the stairs, chatted a bit with an old friend, caught up with him and looked around, slide number 51. What the hell, let's read the slide. The last point in the slide was somewhat similar to 'If you have all the above 3 qualities salary doesn't matter to us' ("Hell, it matters to us. What a useless company). The guy asked "Now, if you people have any questions". I was about to leave. At the auditorium gate I met the Elec department Placement Nominee and asked the most important question for all PPTs (Pre-Pizza Talks) "Kya bhai, aaj Pizza milega". It was a rhetorical question, he smiled and I left. Later that night when I enter the wing I get to know about the news (Well no news is good news).

The auditorium was quiet and I believe I was too loud at the moment (my friends believe a bit more loud than usual :P). The person from the company heard and answered my question. What the answer was, I still dont know. But I was fined.

Ofcourse, the penalty was followed by me explaining the incident to every person I meet and I wrote a letter explaining my side of the story to the Placement team. The fine was obviously pardoned (In my 5 years I haven't heard a case of fine actually being imposed so I was laid back anyways).

But still everywhere I go I am asked the same question. And those who know a bit more into the story aren't surprised that I managed a fine in the first PPT I attended (I missed ITC and McKenzie) and that too within 5 minutes. What is even more frustrating that I was fined in the most useless of all companies (come on, I didn't get the pizza, did I?). The smiles I see whenever I enter a PPT now tells me the joke is far from over

4 days later at BCG career counseling.

Insitute Placmeent nom. announces - "I warn you people that please ask relevant questions" (Notice the warn and please in the same sentence)

My Life

(A is walking hurridly out of the hostel, when he hears his name and turns around)
B - Kaise hain? sab thik hai naa (points to his bag)?
A - Haan (doesn't understand)
B - (points to his bag again)
A - Ohhh. Hai thoda kaam
B - (Smiles)
A = Me , B = My hostel's Security guard

Me with my guide

(A and B are standing under a building C comes running escaping from rain)
C - Cigarette
B - This guy is one person who has been hogging my cigarettes from his student life
C - Arrey baba tradition ka khayaal toh rakhna padta hai naa
B - Do u know each other
A - Ya
B - How?
A - hmm (thinking, he saw me drinking like a boozard that day at RK and smoking endlessly)
C - hmmm (thinking, he saw me drinking at that cheap pub and I was wasted)
A - ummm (he was so wasted that day)
C - umm (he is such a useless guy)
A - hmm, faculty student interaction toh ho hi jaata hai sir
C - haan
B - hmm
A = Me, B = My Guide C = Prof from my department

The Sicilian by Mario Puzo

This book was suggested to me by a drunken bengali PhD I met in tum-tum one day.
The author of 'The Godfather' presents us a little story of Micheal Corleone's stay in Sicily when he was hiding for murder of a policeman back in America. Micheal is expected to help out a bandit, who has been able to slip away from the hands of the government for past 7 years, to escape to America. Turi, the young lad has made enemies at Rome and Sicily with the Friends of Friends. Turi's parents are old friends of the Godfather and he has promised their son a safe passage to America. Micheal has to bring Turi along with him. How did Turi, a loving peasant became a rebel? How did he manage to bend the most powerful people in Rome to his will and later against him? Who is really with him and who is against him? Will he be able to escape the land of treacherous people?
In this book you will see the beloved son of our Godfather, seem insignificant to the self proclaimed Champion of Sicily. You fall in love with the bandit who is similar to Robin Hood, gives his victims time to make peace with God before killing them. He is gentle with friends and ferocious with the treacherous.
Turi Guiliano grew up a poor son of a poor peasant, born in America but raised a Sicilian. His friend Aspanu Pisciotta is his shadow, the more ferocious of the two. Until one fateful Turi is shot while smuggling and he kills a carabinieri and is an outlaw. He and Aspanu go on to live in the mountains initially supported by his family and his Godfather Professor Hector Adonis but then they proceed to terrorize all the carabinieri in the area release prisoners and build their own band. They loot,kidnap the rich and distribute it among the poor. People love him, say prayers for him,hide him, help him. Then it happens Don Croce tricks him and the massacre of Portella della Ginestra. He hunts down the traitor and kills him, he kills the Friends of Friends. But the noop has started to tighten. His final aim is Don Croce. All these years the enemies kept at bay by the documents of support these people had given him when they needed him to crub the socialist wave which could have been a doom for the Dons in Sicily and present government in Rome. As he moves to Trapani, in the abode of Don Domenico Clemenza, Peter Clemenza's elder brother, where Micheal waits for him. But he is assassinated by none other than his brother Aspanu on instructions from Don Croce. Michael later learns that his father had predicted the outcome and done nothing, and is saddened. He blames himself partly because he told Aspanu that the documents were safe in America. You are nearly as heartbroken as Micheal to learn about the death of The Sicilian(Micheal is in awe of this young man and evious of him who at the tender age of 20 had already started winning the hard life battles). Till the end you expect him to spring back to life, like it was another one of his jokes he played on the Friends of Friends or Rome. Later in the book when Aspanu is poisoned and the professor puts the note in his pocket 'So die all who betray Guiliano' you are over joyed.
Puzo nicely introduces the lifestyle of the Sicilians, their lifestyle, their homes, their customes, their stubbornness, their strength, their weakness, the treacherous, the loyal, the loyalties changing sides, new loyalties emerging, love, hate, revenge and other things. The story has 3 time lines, the present, the rise of Don Croce and the rise of Turi and still you feel at ease the way Puzo has written the novel. Also the scenes are very picturesquely depicted, you can imagine the scenes very clearly, either it be the freedom enjoyed by Turi and Aspanu in their first week at Monte d'Ora, or the monastery, or the assassination of Terranova (one of the major chiefs of Turi's gang) and other stuff. The change is gradual and each time line you are able to pick were you left.
Puzo doesn't fool you with romantic endings, the powerful wins and survives, the careless dies, either betrayed or by his own foolishness. The more experiences and calm Don Croce survives whereas the hero of the novel dies just because he instigated the Don in the final moments of his stay in Sicily. The novel may not be as good as godfather because of the more alien ways of Sicilians and Italy and Rome and the government there at that time, but still is a good read.

There are numerous quotes but that would require me reading the whole book again and would be updated later.

My Life (contd.)

(A enters B's room. B is watching a movie. B pauses it. On the screen is a door, possibly of a hospital wing. A looks at the screen) A - Arrey, yeh toh woh movie hai.... 1994 ki.... ek min...hmm.. fugitive, the fugitive.(B starts laughing) A = Me, B = My Wingie